Israel bombs Gaza for 2nd day straight in response to cross-border attacks as shaky truce falters

Hostilities between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza have resumed with a vengeance, with Tel Aviv firing a flurry of missiles into the enclave in response to “arson balloons” as tensions flared up under the new Israeli government.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they targeted a “military compound and a rocket launch site” allegedly operated by Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip. The strikes were carried out Thursday night in retaliation to incendiary balloons launched from Gaza, the IDF said.

The missiles reportedly hit the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, which became the target of Israeli raids for a second day in a row, as well as the town of Beit Lahia, north of Gaza city.

Eight fires, including seven in the Eshkol region and one in a field near Shaar Hanegev, were sparked by the balloons on Thursday, following four on Wednesday, Israeli media reported.

Shortly after Israel bombed out the alleged Hamas sites, sirens sounded in the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel, with the IDF claiming the alerts were triggered by “incoming fire, not rockets.”

CCTV footage emerged purporting to show the moment a barrage of machine gun fire was directed towards the community.

The eruption of violence followed a controversial ‘Flag March’ through Jerusalem earlier this week, organized by Israeli nationalist groups to commemorate Tel Aviv’s victory in the 1967 Six Day War, when it captured East Jerusalem. Initially scheduled for May, the event was postponed as tensions gave way to fighting in Gaza at the tail end of the Ramadan holiday, which lasted for 11 days. Though the route of the march was ultimately redirected in an effort to avoid clashes, skirmishes in Jerusalem and elsewhere broke out regardless, seeing several injuries and more than a dozen Palestinians arrested.

Thursday’s strikes mark the second flare-up since the last Israel-Gaza ceasefire, brokered by Egypt last month on the heels of a bloody war that killed more than 250 Palestinians and 13 in Israel. It is also the first military operation carried out under a new Israeli coalition government, which took the reins from the long-time PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

https://www.rt.com/news/526900-israel-gaza-strikes-balloons/

A Who’s Who Of Left-Wing Hacks: Behind The Aspen Institute’s Upcoming Report On Silencing Dissent

For the past six months, this liberal Dream Team has been hard at work on their big report to help the federal government work with corporations to squash news they call 'disinformation.'

Most people haven’t heard of the Aspen Institute. Others maybe recall some mention of their annual Aspen Ideas Festival. A few more might somewhat remember a minor political dust-up from 2020 when Michael Bloomberg, who was blowing money on a doomed bid for president at the time, had to grovel and beg forgiveness for simply stating the facts on crime at an Aspen conference five years prior.

The “festival,” which The Economist called a “mountain retreat for the liberal elite” and “a corporate Never-Never Land,” refused to release the video; it’s a safe space for the right types of people, and liberal billionaire technocrats are precisely the right type of people.

And you better believe “the right types of people” are sitting on the institute’s Commission on Information Disorder. Behind the psychiatric name, the commission is a group of liberal activists, donors, journalists and tech executives, a disgraced foreign royal, and even a corporate “senior vice president of social impact,” who must be in charge of all the junior corporate vice presidents for diversity. For the past six months, this liberal Dream Team has been hard at work on their big report to help the federal government work with corporations to squash news they call “disinformation.”

So what will this “disinformation” be? A look at the commissioners hints strongly that it will be you, me, and anyone else who disagrees with Katie Couric and her left-wing friends.

Katie Couric specifically, because she sits on the commission. Once a household name for her long role on NBC’s “The Today Show,” including nine years of smiling and bantering with serial creep and accused company rapist Matt Lauer, Couric was canceled in 2013 after failing to earn ratings on her own show, and slowly drifted into obscurity.

From her landing spot, an online show with Yahoo!, Couric ran a disinformation campaign against an investigator who had exposed Planned Parenthood for selling harvested body parts from aborted babies. Couric falsely claimed the videos were doctored, and ran puff pieces on the president of the country’s largest abortion clinic. In her spare time, Couric is an abortion activist, and says her activism is inspired by her mother, whose pregnancy she clearly survived.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/17/a-whos-who-of-left-wing-hacks-behind-the-aspen-institutes-upcoming-report-on-silencing-dissent/

San Francisco Leftists Are Funding Your Local Library’s Drag Queen Story Hour

The financial history of Drag Queen Story Hour shows that big money from San Francisco has endeavored to mold our country, and others, in its own image.

It’s no secret that California has long enjoyed disproportionate influence over American cultural and sexual norms, and even much of the world’s, due to its dominion over the film industry through Hollywood and its influence on the pornography industry through the San Fernando Valley, which reportedly is home to “more (porn) companies … than anywhere else.”

Another equally depraved force emanating from the Golden State has also been hard at work peddling perversity on an international scale, this time with a younger audience in mind.

Drag Queen Story Hour, the organization responsible for promoting drag queens reading to children at public libraries, likes to bill itself as a grassroots organization, writing on its website that “all DQSH events are produced locally and independently.” Upon deeper examination, however, it becomes apparent that a number of wealthy interests, almost all from California’s San Francisco Bay Area, have bankrolled the initiative.

DQSH has brought not just one, not two, but at least three convicted sex criminals, two of whom are convicted pedophiles, into confined spaces with large numbers of young children on multiple occasions. Its events also have been sponsored by a man who’s been charged with seven counts of child pornography possession. So much for the “safe space” that drag queen “Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker” claims the program provides.

Origin Of Drag Queen Story Hour

Before examining the financial backers of Drag Queen Story Hour, it’s vital to understand the organization’s roots. DQSH was founded in 2015 by colorful characters Michelle Tea, a lesbian (former) prostitute; Virgie Tovar, author of “You Have the Right to Remain Fat”; and Juli Delgado Lopera, who leads Drag Queen Story Hour’s parent organization, Radar Productions, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that describes itself as a “Bay Area queer literary arts organization.”

Radar Productions proudly notes that Drag Queen Story Hour “captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity in childhood,” and says it managed Drag Queen Story Hour up until 2018, guiding it from infancy to its rise as a “global phenomenon.”

How did Drag Queen Story Hour, which now describes itself as “a global network of local organizations, each of which is independently managed and funded,” rise to international prominence in six short years, with chapters on four different continents and in 29 different states, as well as in Puerto Rico?

While a wealth of slobbering puff pieces from corporate media like Cosmopolitan, NBC, CBS, and the Daily Mail, among others, most certainly aided the growth of the pedophile-assisting nonprofit, generous donors undoubtedly drove much of the organization’s early successes.

https://thefederalist.com/2021/06/17/san-francisco-leftists-are-funding-your-local-librarys-drag-queen-story-hour/

Russian hackers attacking organizations through system used by USAID, says Microsoft

Russia-linked hackers behind the SolarWinds attack have been targeting government agencies, think tanks and non-governmental organizations through the email system of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Microsoft said late Thursday.

The wide-scale attack was uncovered this week by the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center who on Thursday identified the group responsible in a statement as Nobelium, which has been blamed for the November attack through widely used SolarWinds software that aided the breach of at least nine U.S. federal agencies as well as dozens of companies, including Fortune 500 businesses.

Microsoft said it had first noticed the campaign in January but on Tuesday Nobelium escalated the effort by accessing the Constant Contact email service of the USAID from which it distributed malicious links through authentic-looking emails to organizations and industries. When the link's clicked, a malicious file would create a so-called back door to the computer that would enable the stealing of data and the ability to infect other computers on the network, it said.

Though there were several iterations of the email, one example shared by Microsoft attempts to convince recipients to click on the link by advertising it as a USAID special alert, stating "Donald Trump has published new documents on election fraud."

Microsoft said due to the high volume of emails distributed in the campaign, most were blocked by threat detention systems and marked as spam.

"However, some automated threat detection systems may have successfully delivered some of the earlier emails to recipients either due to configuration and policy settings or prior to detections being in place," Microsoft said.

This spear-phishing scheme targeted some 3,000 individual accounts across more than 150 organizations, it said.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/05/28/Mircosoft-says-Russian-hackers-used-USAID-system-to-hack-organizations-governments/6421622185165/

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Illinois Governor Signs Democrat-Backed Voting Bill

Gov. Pritzker Signs Legislation Further Expanding Voting Protections for Illinois Residents / NEWS RELEASE

CHICAGO – Today, Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 825 into law further expanding access to the ballot box for Illinoisans by increasing access to curbside voting, establishing permanent vote by mail registries, establishing a central polling location in counties across the state, strengthening cybersecurity standards for election authorities in Illinois, and providing viable voting opportunities for justice-impacted individuals. The legislation also establishes June 28, 2022 as the new 2022 general primary election date.

SB 825 grants sheriffs outside of Cook County the ability to establish polling locations at local county jails, a practice already in place in Cook County. Individuals awaiting trial and sentencing who are residents of the community surrounding the county jail will now be permitted to vote at the jail’s polling place.

“With attacks on voting rights on the rise in states across the nation, Illinois is proud to stand up for a strong, secure, and accessible democracy,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This legislation articulates the rights of Illinois citizens to vote by mail, allows those awaiting trial to cast their ballots, and makes a state holiday of Election Day 2022. I want to thank sponsors Senate President Don Harmon and Representative Maurice West, as well as the Women’s Legislative Caucus leadership, and county clerks across the state for their commitment to protecting the fundamental right to vote.”

The legislation builds on the administration’s previous actions to protect and expand voting rights in Illinois which include extended hours at permanent polling places, expanding the state’s vote by mail program, and making election day a state holiday.

“This keeps in place a number of voter conveniences that have proven popular,” said Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park). “It’s a great example of lawmakers listening to the diverse voices of voters and taking steps to maintain and encourage voter participation.”

“All throughout the country, we are seeing efforts by Republicans to stifle the people’s right to vote—particularly among communities of color,” said Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch (D-Westchester). “In Illinois, we believe our democracy is only stronger when more people have access to the ballot box. That’s why we passed this elections bill to establish permanent mail-in voting and make election day a state holiday.”

“With the signing of Senate Bill 825, we are telling the nation that Illinois is all about voter empowerment, not voter suppression. Illinois is about increasing accessibility for all people to vote while preserving the integrity of the ballot box,” said State Representative Maurice West (D-Rockford). “I want to thank Speaker Welch and Senate President Harmon for teaming up with me and thank you to Governor Pritzker for empowering voters by signing this legislation.”

“COVID-19 demonstrated the interest and efficiency of voting by mail,” said Senate Majority Caucus Whip Julie Morrison (D-Lake Forest). “This becomes a permanent change that will encourage more voters to participate in the election process.”

“Our democracy is at its healthiest when we have high voter participation. We are making sure that voters have the secure access they deserve,” State Representative Katie Stuart (D-Edwardsville) said. “Making sure our high school students can get registered as soon as they are eligible and recognizing the importance of voting with a state holiday on General Election Day will go a long way to create our next generation of involved citizens.”

https://breaking911.com/breaking-illinois-governor-signs-democrat-backed-voting-bill/

FBI Ignored Its Own Warrant And Search Policies To Seize Millions From People's Safety Deposit Boxes

In March of this year, the US Attorney in Los Angeles, California secured an indictment against a secure vault company, alleging the company was engaged in money laundering, drug trafficking, and hiding taxable assets. None of the company's employees or owners were indicted.

FBI agents spent five days turning US Private Vaults upside down. Agents apparently emptied every safety deposit box housed by the business. They did this in complete contradiction of the limits imposed on them by the FBI's own warrant affidavit. Here's Eric Boehm of Reason with some background:

[T]he unsealed warrant authorizing the raid of U.S. Private Vaults granted the FBI permission to seize only the business's computers, money counters, security cameras, and large steel frames that effectively act as bookshelves for the boxes themselves. Per FBI rules, however, the boxes could not be left unsecured in the vault after the raid had been completed, so agents had to take them into custody too.

The FBI could have taken custody of the boxes without opening them and sought warrants for those implicated by the investigation. Instead, the FBI agents emptied the boxes while still on the premises, engaging in dozens of searches not authorized by any warrant.

Here's what the FBI said it would do in its warrant request:

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210613/16341146984/fbi-ignored-own-warrant-search-policies-to-seize-millions-peoples-safety-deposit-boxes.shtml